A Lock Of White Hair
by Ashana
Summary: Jack Frost has recovered his memories, and knows who and what he is now. That leaves him wondering, what happened to his sister?
1. Chapter 1

**A Lock Of White Hair**

Over the past few months, Jack Frost had developed a habit of visiting his friends at least once a week. Sandman taught him flying tricks, as well as long-forgotten history of the world. Deep in the Warren, Bunnymund taught him how to properly paint an Easter egg and how to hide it. They were still tense with each other – Bunny hadn't quite forgiven Jack for the winter of '02 in Scotland, or the ice-skating disaster on Easter Morning of '09 in Rome. Personally, Jack thought that if a trio of Cardinals were going to stand by a frozen pond, they should get some fun in.

North and his workshop had quickly become his favorite place to visit. There was always hot chocolate and cookies, and the jolly man loved showing him his newest ice creations or toy inventions. A few quick jabs with his staff (as well as a round of bowling-for-elves) taught the little elves to stay away from him. The yetis were alright, as long as they didn't try and crowd him. Phil, the one in charge of security that had worked teeth and claw to keep Jack out of the North Pole, even taught him how to play poker.

Tooth was, well, Tooth. Jack made sure he smiled a lot around her (not that it was hard) and had gained an almost permanent shadow in the form of Baby-Tooth. He visited when she wasn't busy out in the field – the sprite had taken to collecting teeth herself on busy nights. When they were able to sit and have tea together, they exchanged stories of favorite children and adventures.

Tonight, however, Jack wasn't here to visit Tooth. He rode the wind to her palace, and hovered just at the edge of her domain. She was out collecting teeth tonight – summer meant sports camps, and children were losing teeth all over the Northern Hemisphere. The palace spires hung like icicles, dripping with columns and adorned with bright colors and golden baubles. The Guardian of Fun glanced down at the cave floor, where waterfalls pooled together beneath a mural of Tooth Fairy.

A last contingent of fairies flew past their stations, depositing their latest teeth before hurrying on to join their leader on another run. Jack watched them fly from the cave, and slowly landed on the nearest pavilion. He kept his staff tight in hand – ever since Pitch Black had managed to snap it in half, he wouldn't let it out of his sight, let alone his grip. The three-hundred-year-old boy reached out and touched the central column that supported the entire spire. It was marble, gilded in gold, and cold to the touch. A spiral of frost traced the shining metal and he pulled his hand back. When he was nervous, he tended to lose control of his power of ice.

A squeak in his ear had Jack Frost shooting straight up in the air, and back away from the column. He looked in every direction wildly, staff brought up to protect his body from any sudden attacks. A blur of color shot across the pavilion, towards him. The guardian sighed in relief as he recognized Baby-Tooth, who hovered in front of him, mismatched eyes bright. She chirred a question, and he reached out to rub her head.

"You scared me, Baby," he muttered, floating to land on the marble. "You should know better than to sneak up on a Guardian like that! Remember when you surprised Sandy and he put you to sleep for three days?" The sprite chirped and nodded, then nuzzled his cheek with her head. "Yeah, it's good to see you too." He allowed her to settle on his shoulder, her preferred place while shadowing him. Frost slowly made his way back to the column. "Now Tooth, this has to remain a secret, kay? Just between you and me." The little sprite nodded her head and watched curiously as he pressed his hand back against the column.

Tooth had shown him how to do this after taking his memories back. She had insisted he return them, since it was her job to guard them. She had all of the guardians, now locked up in a special vault deep within the palace. She had showed him how to summon a tube, by pressing his hand against the metal and focusing on who's memory he wanted. It was tricky, and required more concentration than he normally possessed, but tonight it was all he could focus on.

Holding back his ice, he pressed his hand against the gold and thought hard about what he wanted. No, what he needed.

_Pippa Frost._

A moment later, a tube popped out of the column, and he grabbed it in suddenly numb hands. He turned the bottom of the tube towards him, and stamped across it was a picture of a pale girl with straight brown hair. Pippa Frost.

His sister.

**AN: **I hope y'all enjoyed reading this! I just saw the movie tonight, and this was the first thing that popped into my head. Everything is based on the movie, not the books (which hopefully I'll be able to get for Christmas!). I also forgot how exactly the tooth delivery system works, so I winged it a bit.

Please review if you enjoyed it, or noticed any mistakes. Please no flames!


	2. Chapter 2

**A Lock of White Hair**

The gold tube was warm in his frostbitten hand. Jack stared at the picture, running a thumb over the brown hair and crooked smile. The same smile he, himself possessed. The tube grew colder as frost climbed over the edge, and the spirit quickly reigned in his powers. Baby Tooth squeaked as a blast of cold air swirled through the palace. She chattered angrily in his ear before settling back on his shoulder, arms wrapped around herself for warmth.

"Sorry Baby Tooth," Jack muttered absentmindedly, giving her a pat on the head. He stepped away from the column, floating on the gentle breeze that constantly flowed throughout the cavern. The winter spirit followed the wind, allowing it to push him off the platform to the stone path that wound to the bottom of the palace. His perpetually-cold feet left a trail of frost behind as he absently wandered down the path, his eyes glued to the tube in his hands. Baby Tooth squeaked happily and took off from his shoulder in favor of fluttering around the cherry blossom trees. Jack stopped and pulled his gaze to the tree. They were at the bottom of the path, where the waterfalls collected into a pool beneath the mural of Tooth Fairy and the children she guarded.

This is where he had first found out about his own memories. The boy looked around the area, appreciating the subtle beauties he had been too flustered to notice last time he had been there. Here was the ledge where he had agreed to help the Guardians, there was the path where North had paced while waving his swords while he thought, and here was the cherry blossom tree that Sandy had leaned against while watching the others. Baby Tooth was humming through the branches, gathering blossoms as they were knocked loose by the breeze. Once she had an arm-full she shot back over to Jack and dumped them on his head.

"Hey," he laughed and brushed the petals out of his hair. Baby made a chirping noise that sounded suspiciously like laughter and rubbed against his cheek with her head. She settled back on his shoulder, just between the iced fabric of his hoodie and his neck. Jack ran a finger over her head, thankful for the company. He sat beneath the flowering tree and stared at the gold tube.

"Toothiana is going to kill me for this," he muttered, tapping his thumb against the caricature of his little sister inscribed on the case. "What do you think Baby, should I risk the wrath of the Tooth Fairy?" The sprite squeaked something he couldn't understand, but shook her head and nestled closer to him. For reasons only Toothiana understood, Baby Tooth loved Jack and spent every moment she could with him when he visited. She especially loved to cuddle with him, figuring that he hadn't had enough of that in the past three-hundred years, even if it did leave her wings frosted.

Jack laughed as the sprites wings brushed against a ticklish spot right under his ear. "What's life without a little risk, right?" He stretched out his long legs and laid his staff next to him, patting her on the head with one hand while the other rolled the tube between thin, frostbitten fingers.

"Okay. I can do this." The 316 year old boy was suddenly more nervous than when they had hunted down Pitch Black. He held the tube of teeth in front of his face, and pressed his thumb against the flat cover. The engraved and bejeweled surface sparkled, then fell away to reveal twenty teeth, set in two rows of ten. One of them was chipped, and Jack couldn't help but laugh, even as the memories spiraled out of the teeth to surround both him and Baby Tooth. He had chipped one of his baby teeth as well at that time, (it turned out sledding down a mountain path frequented by cattle herders was a bad idea), but it had long been replaced by his sparkling-like-freshly-fallen-snow adult teeth. Baby Tooth squeaked and pointed as the first of the memories swept over their minds, filling their sight with the past.

* * *

"Pippa! Pippa, where are you?"

A six year old girl with long, straight hair and bright brown eyes ducked lower behind a tree, keeping herself out of sight of the voice. She pressed a hand against her mouth to stifle her giggles, and failed miserably. A pair of hands caught her under her armpits, swinging her up into the air and into the arms of her older brother.

Twelve-year-old Jackson Frost grinned at his sister as she giggled helplessly in his arms. "Found you!" He pressed their foreheads together, allowing the child to wrap her arms around his neck. "You're good at this game, Pippa."

"Did I win?" Pippa Frost beamed at her big brother, who was looking after her for the day.

"I don't know. I did find you," Jack set her on the ground, and tickled her until she let go of his neck. He took her hand and they began the short walk back to the village.

Pippa stopped and stamped her foot. "But I was hiding _for-ever! _You only found me 'cause there was nowhere else to look!"

Jack pretended to consider this for a moment, stroking his chin like he had seen his father do when discussing important matters with their mother. "That is true," he nodded, "Yet the game _is _hide-and-seek, and since I sook out the hider-"

"Sook isn't a word." Pippa interrupted.

"It should be." Jack took her hand back and, with a little tug, led her toward the village. "Now, since I _sook_ out the hider, and I found the hider, that means, according to the rules I win."

The six-year-old pouted. "But I wanted to win."

Jack paused, and crouched down, laying his hands on her shoulders. "Pippa, did you have fun?"

"Yeah!" She reached up and grabbed his wrists. "I always have fun playing with you Jack!"

He smiled. "Then it doesn't matter who won, does it, as long as we had fun?"

Pippa pursed her lips as she thought this over, then nodded slowly. "I guess so."

"Good. In that case, I guess the winner owes his sister a ride." Jack motioned to his back, still crouching. His sister beamed and climbed up on his back, wrapping her arms around his neck. "All set?" She nodded, and he stood straight.  
"Jack?" Pippa rested her head against his mop of rambunctious hair.

"Yeah, Pip?"

"You're the best brother ever."

"I get that a lot."

"Jack!"

He chuckled, catching sight of the village up ahead. He slowed his step, savoring this time with his sister. "You're a pretty amazing sister yourself." He shifted her weight and felt her settle against his back, exhausted from a day of playing in the summer woods.

There was a feeling of contentment deep in her soul as she fell asleep on her brothers back, and of happiness that knew no end.

* * *

Jack pulled away from the memory, frozen heart thudding heavily in his chest. On his shoulder, Baby Tooth squeaked and patted his cheek, which was wet with tears.

"She was so little." He muttered, absently wiping his cheeks with the back of his hand. Tooth's Palace wasn't nearly as cold as Santoff Claussen, and the salt water didn't freeze to his cheeks. Baby Tooth nuzzled him, as he sat heavily against the tree, fingering the gold filigree.

After a few minutes, he sat up straighter and held the gilded box up in front of him again. With a deep, shuddering breath he opened it once more.

* * *

She was seven, he was thirteen. He had been flirting with the blacksmiths daughter when the snowball hit him on the back of the head. Jack blinked, completely losing his train of thought, and turned to see his sister standing near the woodpile outside of their cottage, doing her best to look innocent. The blacksmiths daughter giggled and hurried inside, not wanting to be caught up in one of the famous Frost Siblings Snowball Wars.

"Sister dear," Jack wandered across the village center, hands folded behind his back as he pretended to look around, "I do believe someone just hit me with a snowball. Did you see who?"

Pippa bit her lip to keep from giggling, trying to get a hold of herself so she could give a proper answer. "Why no, dear brother, I didn't." She curled her hands behind her back, trying to discreetly brush snow from her mittens.

"Hmm," Jack reached out and grabbed his shepherds crook from beside the door. It had been a gift from his father for his eighth birthday, when he began to help with the herds. He rarely went anywhere without it. Now, he tossed it from hand to hand, eying his sister carefully. "Are you sure you didn't see anybody?" He leaned against the staff and watched his sister giggle.

"No, I didn't see anybody."

"Hmm. It wasn't Timothy Baker, was it?"

"No, he's at home with a cold today."

"What about Susie Smith?"

"Her mom says she can't play until she finishes her cross stitch."

Jack looked to his right, then his left, then back to his right. "Well, there isn't anybody else out and about right now. That only leaves one person it could have been." He looked at his sister and raised his staff dramatically, and Pippa had to bite her lip again to keep from laughing. She stopped, however, when he hooked the crooked end of the staff over the lowest branch of the tree she was standing under, and gave it a hard shake. A slew of snow, left over from last nights storm, was dumped on her head, filling the hood of her coat and soaking through the wool-lined collar.

Jack laughed.

Pippa lunged.

The two went dashing about the village, scooping up snow whenever they caught a breath and tossing it at each other. They missed, more than not, and hit the other houses, the dogs – Pippa even pegged Old Mr. Coventry when he came out to yell at them for making noise. Jack grabbed her before the crotchety man could give the girl a whack with his cane, and the two dashed into the forest, where they collapsed, laughing.

"Jack, Jack," Pippa shook his arm as they lay in the deep snowdrift, trying to catch their breath. "Did you see his face?"

The teenager rolled over to look at his sister, still huffing. Every time he got his breath, he started laughing again. "Ye-yeah. Yeah," he ran a hand down his face, "Oh man. I've never seen him look so surprised!" He started snickering again.

"He looked like a frog that's caught a skunk!" Pippa giggled. "We're going to have to hide out here all day. Mum will be so mad!"

Jack snorted. "I'm sure she'll understand. It was an accident, after all." When Pippa didn't immediately agree, he turned his chocolate eyes on her. "Wasn't it?"

Pippa smiled, a little secret smile that didn't show her teeth, and looked at the patchwork of blue sky visible through the evergreen branches. "Of course it was." Her brother snorted and rolled his eyes, but didn't press the matter.

The two laid in the snow, immobilized in time, sharing a feeling of hope for the future, where they would be able to get Old Mr. Coventry with a whole barrage of snowballs. It was a future where they and their families would be together, forever.

* * *

Baby Tooth chirred something that almost sounded like a scolding when they emerged from that dream. Jack poked her little belly, eliciting a squeak and a glare from the little fairy. "Old Man Coventry deserved it," Jack pointed out needlessly. "He was a nasty piece of work, even after I died. He didn't like kids."

The two lapsed into silence for a moment, reflecting on what they'd seen. Jack ran a finger along the edge of the Tooth Box, lost in deep memories. After a minute he moved to invoke the next memory, when something caught his eyes.

"Hey Baby Tooth, what's wrong with this one?" One of his sisters teeth – a molar, maybe or a chipped canine, he couldn't tell – had a brown, sickly look to it. The fairy stuck out her tongue, and looked away from the box. "Did Pippa forget to floss or something?" He moved to touch the tooth and start the memory, but Baby Tooth darted forward and grabbed his finger, tugging on it to stop him. Jack pulled his hand back. "What is it?"

Of course, the only one who could understand the tooth fairies was the Tooth Fairy herself, and she was off collecting teeth tonight. Baby Tooth chirped a long lecture to the winter spirit, of which he didn't understand a single word. At last he swept her up in his hand and deposited her on his shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll be careful." He reassured her as he picked up the dark tooth. There was a swirl of gold, and a sudden sinking sensation in his stomach, then nothing.

* * *

**AN: **Oh my gosh, I have no idea what to say you guys. The response to this story has been amazing! I'm looking forward to writing more – it'll only be a few chapters longer. I'll try and have the next one up sooner, but it's the last week of classes and then finals are next week, so it might take a week or two to get up.

Thank you for all the wonderful reviews! I really appreciate them. Please let me know if there are any mistakes, or if something is off. Y'all are amazing!


	3. Chapter 3

**A Lock Of White Hair**

Ten-year-old Pippa Frost felt like she was walking on air. Timothy Baker, who was a year older than her, had held her hand during class today, and afterward had kissed her on the cheek while they hid behind the one-room school house. The girl hummed absently to herself as she skipped down the road toward the tiny village of Burgess. There were only a few children in her village, and they didn't have a teacher, so those who wanted to learn had to walk three miles north to Heathsville. Timothy had stayed in the small town to visit his grandmum, leaving Pippa to walk home alone. They were the only two from the small livestock village who insisted on going to school every day; Pippa so she could learn to read, and Timothy so he could learn to write.

The girl ran a mitten-clad hand over a patch of thick bushes, devoid of their raspberries this late in the winter. A dusting of snow had fallen, softening the land in a blanket of white. It was two weeks to Christmas, and Pippa couldn't help but give a little skip at the thought. She had asked her mother for a book she had seen in the window of the Heathsville General Store. It was a new book, full of fairy tales from all over Europe. There were two different kinds – one with just the stories, and the other packed with full-page illustrations and gilded edges. She didn't need the fancyone – after all, one didn't need pictures when they had an imagination!

A snowball hit her square in the face. Pippa stopped dead in her tracks, jolted out of her pleasant thoughts all at once. She blinked, the snow clinging to her lashes, and reached up to slowly wipe her face off. Standing a few feet away on the heavily rutted road, Jack was standing there, looking just as surprised as she felt. They stared at each other in silence for a moment.

"Why didn't you duck?" He finally asked, leaning casually on his shepherd crook.

Pippa spluttered for a moment, before shaking her head. "I was thinking."

"You must have been thinking pretty hard." Jack strolled over in his light, easy gait and rested a hand on her head, brushing off some of the snow. The little girl frowned and rubbed at her nose.

"That kind of hurt," she complained, turning big eyes on her brother.

"Aw, I'm sorry Pips." He threw a skinny arm around her shoulder. Jack had always been skinny, ever since he was little. Pippa had asked her mother about it once, and she had said that when Jack was five, he had been very sick for a month with something called 'pneumonia' that had ravaged his body with a high fever. Since then Jack had never eaten much, and had stayed as skinny as a stick, despite growing like a weed. "I really did think you were going to duck. What were you thinking so hard about?"

"Christmas." Pippa tugged on his arm and they strolled toward the village, which was nearly half a mile away now.

"Ah yes, that time of year where a fat man bribes kids with gifts so they'll behave." Jack snorted, swinging his staff through a snow drift and stirring up a cloud of sparkling flakes.

Pippa tugged on his arm and gave him a nervous look. "Don't say that about Santa! He might hear you, and not bring you any presents."

"Oh my, I didn't think about that." Jack agreed with all the seriousness a sixteen-year-old boy talking about Santa Claus could. "I suppose I should do something nice to get back in his good graces again, huh?" Pippa nodded, and Jack stopped, pretending to think hard. He stroked an imaginary beard, which got a giggle out the little girl at his side. "What if I took my little sister ice skating? Do you think that would get me back on the nice list?"

Pippa shook her head. "No, it would take a lot more than that to get you off Santas naughty list!" She giggled. "But it's a good start. Come on, lets go grab our skates!"

She took off at a dead run, leaving her brother to walk behind and shake his head, wondering at the marvel that was his little sister.

* * *

The memory went wobbly for a moment, as though it were a cracked vinyl record and the needle was jumping across the grooves. The sight of the snowy road, the village, the boy standing watching his sister run was replaced by a swirl of colors. Jack reached up and placed a hand around Baby Tooth, who was hunched down in his hood, watching the memory with wide, mis-matched eyes. She whimpered at his touch, and pointed as the memory rearranged itself around them.

* * *

"Jack!"

Terror. Pure, unadulterated terror was pumping through her veins, putting every nerve on alert and making her dizzy with adrenaline. They had gone ice skating, just like Jack said, on Frost Pond. It was where they always went – it was small enough to freeze over early in the winter, and was close to the village. It was also, technically, on their land. Their dad stopped by it on his herding route most days, especially during the dry season, so the sheep could drink. During the winter it was a well-loved play area for the handful of children nearby. Today, however, it was just the Frost siblings.

Pippa shifted on the ice, and froze as it cracked beneath her skates once more. Jack was a few feet away, his own eyes reflecting her terror. He had turned as soon as he heard the tell-tale crack and had come as close as possible. Now he knelt, untying his skates and laying them to the side.

"It's okay. It's okay. Don't look down. Just look at me." Jack rested a hand on his chest, which was beating much too fast for his liking.

His words did nothing to ease the roaring in her ears. "Jack, I'm _scared_." She shifted on the skates, and the ice cracked even farther apart beneath her.

"I know. I know." The words were coming without thinking, and the boy repeated himself as panic threatened to take over. He stood, taking a step forward, and paused when more of the ice splintered. "You're gonna be alright, you're not gonna fall in." He paused, taking a breath, and forced back the icy tendrils of terror. If she fell in, if she got cold – well, pneumonia would be the least of her worries, if she ever got out of the lake alive. She would, though. Jack would dive in himself and save her if he had too, ice be damned. "Uh...we're gonna have a little fun, instead." He went back to what he knew, and if there was one thing Jack Frost knew, it was fun.

"No we're not!" Pippa's voice came out an octave higher than normal.

"Would I trick you?" Jack flashed her his roguish grin, inching towards his staff.

"Yes, you always play tricks!" Pippa had tears in her eyes and on her cheeks now. She reached up to brush them off.

Jack forced a chuckle. "Alright, well, not, not," he tried to get his nerves under control, "Not this time. I promise. I promise, you're gonna be, you're gonna be fine." She looked up at him then, and he almost broke. Her eyes, so much like his own, showed absolute trust in him. "You have to believe in me," he encouraged, and she gave a little nod of her head. He jumped ahead with his idea. "You wanna play a game? We're gonna play hopscotch, like we play every day." He took a step to the side. "You see, it's just – one!" The ice groaned beneath his slight weight. He pretended to lose his balance, and Pippa giggled, distracted – however briefly – from her predicament. "Two – Three!" Jack took the last two steps lightly, landing on thicker ice, and scooped up his staff. "Alright, now it's your turn." He crouched, holding the hooked end of the staff towards her.

"One." She took a step and the ice rebelled, splintering violently beneath the shift in weight.

"Two." Her skates slid just a bit farther, but the cracks were spreading in a circle around her.

"Three!" Jack's arm shot out, and he caught her around the waist with his staff. He pulled, and she went flying across the ice, landing where it was thick and sturdy. She rolled several feet, then looked up, a startled grin filling her face. He had done it. He had saved her! She giggled, adrenaline fighting for a release and laughter the only thing she could think of to ease the pressure.

They shared a smile as Jack stood. It was a special smile – wide and open, full of teeth. Both sets of deep brown eyes sparkled, showing relief and faith and love, for each other and for whatever deity was watching over them. Jack chuckled and took a step forward.

This time, he wasn't plunging into the ice. This time he was standing there beside his sister, watching in horror as his past self dropped through the thin ice to become prey to the icy water below.

"JACK!" Pippa lunged forward, but the ice snarled a warning and she stopped. "Jack?" There was not sound other than the lapping of water against the edge of the ice. No tousled head emerged, laughing and reassuring her. No hand appeared to wave, no clothes appeared, nothing.

To fall into a frozen lake was to die. All the children knew that. Jack knew that. Pippa knew that. They lived in a mountainous region, and the whether got beyond cold some days. Ice reformed quickly on the ponds and lakes, simply because it was so cold. Even if someone was rescued, they had to deal with frostbite and pneumonia, and something a doctor in Richmond was researching called hypothermia. If you fell into ice, you died.

A minute. She had been staring for a minute. Jack could hold his breath for a while – maybe two or three minutes in all? Pippa struggled to her feet, skates suddenly feeling unbelievably heavy on her feet, and skated clumsily to the edge of the pond. As soon as she touched dirt, she took off running down the hill, to the village.

"Help! HELP! Jack fell in the pond! HELP!" She screamed, her shrill voice reaching the homes before she did. Several people looked up as she tumbled down the rest of the hill, landing at the bottom of the path in a shaking heap. "Jack is in the ice! HELP!"

Mr. Baker – the towns butcher – was the first to her side. "Pippa, lass, calm down and take a breath," he ordered, kneeling to gather the trembling girl up in his arms.

"Jack-ice-fell-help!" The girl sobbed, tangling her hand in his shirt.

"Jack fell through the ice?" Baker hazarded a guess, and she nodded frantically.

Several men, who had gathered around to see what the fuss was about, took off up the hill. Time was of the essence, they knew, but it was probably already too late. Several years ago the same thing had happened to a young girl from Heathsville – she had been under for only two minutes, and had died. They'd had to wait for the spring thaw to find her bones and have her properly buried.

The Frosts, who had heard the yelling, were sprinting over. Mr. Frost had just finished moving the sheep to a nearby barn, where they would be warm and well cared for while wolves prowled the winter hills. He reached them first, and dropped to his knees in order to gather his youngest into his arms. "Pippa? Pippa what is it? What's wrong?"

"Dad!" She gasped, rolling from one mans arms to the other. He held her close, and she sobbed breathlessly into his cape.

"Frost," Baker reached out, and placed a hand on the mans shoulder, "Jack, he fell through the ice."

The mans face froze in an expression of disbelief. Behind him Mrs. Frost collapsed into the arms of a concerned Mrs. Baker. The family shook as their world was torn apart and rearranged, only to contain one less member.

* * *

The memory faded. Jack Frost, eternal spirit of winter, dropped the box. It automatically snapped shut and rolled out of his lap, into the lake with a near-silent splash.

His hands shook, his heart hammered, his mind swirled with thoughts of the past. When he had first seen his memories, in the midst of the battle with Pitch, he had been happy. He had seen that he had a family, and he had given up his life to save his sister. Now, seeing it from this other angle, from his sisters point of view, he couldn't help but feel guilty and sick inside. His sister had _seen _him die, had lost her brother when she was only ten. How must she have felt for the years after that? He she ever skated again? Had she gotten married and had children of her own? His beautiful little sister, sweet to the core despite the Frost Family mischievous streak – had she ever smiled again after that?

Jack suddenly felt dizzy and sick and oh so tired. He moved Baby Tooth, who was chirring worriedly, from his shoulder and laid down on his side, curled up among the roots of the tree. The fairy buzzed around his head for a moment, a look of deep concern etched on her face, before she finally settled for perching on the root nearest his head, and running a miniscule hand through his hair.

That was how Tooth found them several hours later.

* * *

**AN: **Wow! I'm still overwhelmed at the sheer amount of readers this story has gotten. It baffles me! I hope y'all enjoy this newest chapter! It tore at my heartstrings to write, mostly because my own older brother was killed in a car crash last January. I can definitely sympathize with Pippa here, poor girl.

Love to all my reviewers/favoriters/followers!


End file.
